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enHolmes: Women’s wear ‘distracts’ state lawmakershttp://www.banner-tribune.com/lifestyle/holmes-women%E2%80%99s-wear-%E2%80%98distracts%E2%80%99-state-lawmakers
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://www.banner-tribune.com/sites/stmarynow.com/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/lifestyles_308.jpg?itok=yIOeXRLz"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.banner-tribune.com/sites/stmarynow.com/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/lifestyles_308.jpg?itok=yIOeXRLz" width="350" height="118" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican Sen. Mitch Holmes clearly recalls when women have worn “over the top” attire during his decade in the Kansas Statehouse.<br />
“A blouse that came way past the rib cage was one of the most outlandish ones,” he told The Associated Press. Such women’s wear can distract from the legislative process, he said, explaining why a dress code was needed in his Ethics and Elections committee.<br />
Holmes dropped his guidelines on Tuesday, the day after his AP interview, after he was shamed on social media as a “sexist” and “cave man” for telling women how to dress. In a written apology, he said he “meant no offense” by suggesting that “for ladies, low cut necklines and mini-skirts are inappropriate.”<br />
It’s at least the fourth time that lawmakers have retreated from dress codes for female colleagues, lobbyists, interns and other citizens recently.<br />
After Missouri’s House speaker resigned in a scandal last year — he acknowledged exchanging sexual text messages with a female intern — some of his colleagues suggested an intern dress code could help eliminate “distractions.” Republican Todd Richardson quickly squelched that idea after taking over as speaker.<br />
Montana’s House speaker, Austin Knudsen, also suffered backlash when he issued a dress code before the 2015 session urging women to be “sensitive to skirt lengths and necklines,” while telling men simply to wear jackets, ties and dress pants.<br />
Knudsen, a Republican, later called it a “rookie mistake” and reversed course. “It wasn’t a hill worth dying on at the beginning of the session,” he said.<br />
One of the women who led that charge was Democratic Rep. Jenny Eck, of Helena. Women already have to be smarter and work harder to be considered equal, she said; a dress code suggests men have permission to evaluate women based on their bodies.<br />
“You can trust that women will get up in the morning and figure it out,” she said.<br />
Female lawmakers aren’t immune: In 2014, Republican Peggy Mast, the Kansas House’s speaker pro-tem, drew First Amendment complaints after suggesting dress code changes for interns.<br />
She pulled back some — interns can apparently wear perfume and cologne after all — but their manual still asks women to avoid “halter tops, strapless tops, backless style, miniskirts and revealing necklines.” There’s no list of forbidden attire for men.<br />
“The notion that the men in the legislature are going to dictate how women dress feels (like) a bit of a throwback to a bygone era that I think we had thought we had left,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.<br />
Women are a slight majority of the U.S. population, but remain a minority in all 50 state legislatures, filling 1,808 legislative seats this year, 24.5 percent of the nationwide total, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That’s a historic high, but their ranks have remained relatively unchanged in the last five years.<br />
If their number more closely matched the nation’s demographics, what they wear probably wouldn’t be an issue, said New Jersey state Sen. Diane Allen, a Republican and former chairwoman of the National Foundation for Women Legislators.<br />
The backlash grew in Kansas last week after Democratic Sen. David Haley shared the rules with a female lobbyist who snapped a picture that spread on social media.<br />
Holmes initially defended his guidelines, saying they had been in effect for at least a year and no one complained.<br />
“We’re really looking for you to be addressing the issue rather than trying to distract or bring eyes to yourself” while testifying, Holmes told The Topeka Capital-Journal, which labeled the guidelines “disrespectful” and “alarming” in a Sunday editorial.<br />
Democratic Sen. Laura Kelly, of Topeka, called them “condescending toward women” because men weren’t told what to wear.<br />
Holmes was still holding his ground on Monday.<br />
“I just want to make sure that we have proper decorum,” he said. “Males have such little choice about what they wear with suits and ties. But you know, I’m reasonable and I’m willing to make sure that no one feels like they’re being singled out.”<br />
Haley praised Holmes after he finally threw in the towel the next day, saying “he’s a gracious leader to recognize parity in the process.”<br />
Missouri Rep. Nick King, a Republican and Mormon from suburban Kansas City, said his thoughts “didn’t get expressed very well” last summer when his email to colleagues suggested that “a good, modest, conservative dress code” for both male and female interns would help lawmakers stay focused by “removing one more distraction.”<br />
But Missouri Rep. Stacey Newman finds disturbing similarities in all these controversies.<br />
“To have that emphasis put back on what women are wearing — that it’s ‘distracting’ or whatever — is really diminishing our contributions,” said Newman, a Democrat from suburban St. Louis.<br />
—Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka and Matt Volz in Helena, Montana, contributed.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-kicker field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">By DAVID A. LIEB and MELISSA HELLMANN
The Associated Press</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Section:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lifestyle" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Lifestyle</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/senator" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>senator</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mitch-holmes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Mitch Holmes</span></a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/holmes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Holmes</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/women" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Women</span></a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dress" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>dress</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dress-code" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>dress code</span></a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ethics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Ethics</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sexist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>sexist</span></a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/female" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>female</span></a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/distracting" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>distracting</span></a></div></div></div>Wed, 27 Jan 2016 16:24:59 +0000StMaryNow.com33781 at http://www.banner-tribune.comhttp://www.banner-tribune.com/lifestyle/holmes-women%E2%80%99s-wear-%E2%80%98distracts%E2%80%99-state-lawmakers#commentsThe Houma (La.) Today on getting information to state employees on ethics lawshttp://www.banner-tribune.com/editorial/houma-la-today-getting-information-state-employees-ethics-laws
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p class="Text">Oct. 14: <span style="line-height: 1.538em;">The Houma (La.) Today on getting information to state employees on ethics laws</span></p>
<p class="Text"><p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Lafourche District Attorney Cam Morvant II is doing what he can to make sure all public employees learn what their duties are under the state’s ethics laws.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Morvant and his staff are conducting an hour-long training session Wednesday morning for the parish’s public workers, training that should let the know what they can and cannot, must and must not do, according to the law.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">The training is a requirement of public service, although workers can choose to take a class online.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Morvant deserves recognition for seeing a need and trying to provide a service that should work out better for the public officials and for the public they serve. ...<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Louisiana has a good and detailed set of laws governing the actions of public officials and protecting the public from those who would hide information of activities from it.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">The success or failure of these laws, though, depends in many instances on the public officials’ knowledge of the laws and their compliance with them.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">The training, therefore, is an integral part of the process — and one that should work to everyone’s advantage.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Most transgressions are the result of people not knowing the law rather than their ignoring it, Morvant said.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Assuming the best of those public officials, this training session — as well as the training opportunities they have online — gives them the tools they need to comply with the law and better serve their constituencies.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">About 300 public employees attended last year’s session, Morvant estimated.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">That is a great achievement, particularly when the session can do so much to educate the people who are expected to comply with requirements that might not be common knowledge. ...<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Let’s hope everyone covered by the law takes part in the training — something that should help inform them and guide their actions.<p></p></p>
<p class="Text">Online:<p></p></p>
<p class="Text"><a href="http://www.houmatoday.com">http://www.houmatoday.com</a><p></p></p>
<p> </p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Section:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/editorial" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Editorial</span></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ethics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype=""><span>Ethics</span></a></div></div></div>Sat, 19 Oct 2013 19:26:09 +0000Harlan Kirgan14279 at http://www.banner-tribune.comhttp://www.banner-tribune.com/editorial/houma-la-today-getting-information-state-employees-ethics-laws#comments